VICISSITUDE

"‘Get out, get out of my home, get out now and don’t come back’ her Mum started screaming at her. This argument was common but usually her Step-Dad was there to calm her Mum down or drag her back, but today he was not there. Today she wanted to escape the constant mental abuse she often received from her Mum and left. Little did she know this was the start of her story of homelessness at the age of sixteen.”

Vicissitude is engaged with exploring hidden homelessness and the emotional anguish it causes, an issue which is often overlooked. There is a whole section of society that is excluded from home by family members and in turn made homeless. This estrangement and abandonment causes emotional strife that is unbearable to deal with and try to overcome. This body of work uses one young girl’s experiences to represent a seldom seen issue within homelessness. Rather than following a linear narrative, there are three interchangeable ‘chapters’: vernacular snapshots of nights out from her friendship group during the time she was homeless, text simulating the emotional abuse she received and finally constructed photographs which are significant to the emotions she hid away from everyone – her story, representing a larger narrative.

Noun1. A change of circumstances or fortune, typically one that is unwelcome or unpleasant.